I saw the event in a packed bar, and needless to say, it was very pro-St. Pierre. We got what we came to see, as GSP just beat Hughes down in a decisive manner.

All in all a great UFC card, with plenty of good fights. Even Tim "John Ruiz" Sylvia's fight was kind of interesting, since it was a real chess match to see if he could keep avoiding Munson's takedowns and submission attempts. Round Three of that fight was genuinely exciting and tense. Other than that, the highlight was Munson coming to the ring to the tune of 'Imagine,' which was hilarious.

I'm glad Vera put Frank Mir out of his misery. The HW division needs someone with Vera's charisma so badly it isn't funny.

"I don't know what is more disquieting -- the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."

Interesting. I love strategy match-ups, but Tim Sylvia is too cautious for what people pay to see. I understand cruising in the final round when all he has to do to win is survive until the bell, but that makes two consecutive bombs for him. The last fight with Arlovski never ever gets mentioned anymore - nor will you ever see highlights or clips. Simply because it was 25 minutes of nothing - possibly the worst title fight in UFC history. At least Monson was pro-active tonight. I'm so sick of Sylvia as a fighter, but the man has skills and refuses to do anything but defense. And sooner or later (sooner, if the next fight is with Vera), that will be ended.

Frank Mir looks to be done in the UFC now. Tonight, he was just being fed to Vera to give the young lion a name on his victim list - typical UFC match-making tactics. But regardless, Vera never disappoints.

We were all on our feet and cheering when GSP landed the left kick. In the slo-mo replays, it looked like the Sacramento crowd all did the same. The end was a highlight reel moment for the ages. Hughes will be back, of course. But at 33, he's no match for the 25 year old GSP who is a better fighter today that Hughes has ever been, which says a lot.

I've gotta disagree with both of you on Monson. I watched the show with a bunch of other MMA enthusiasts, pretty much all of whom have been waiting almost a year to see Sylvia get taken down a peg, but by the time the third round started, most were actually rooting for him out of sheer frustration with Monson. His gameplan was pathetic: shoot for a double-leg, back up, repeat. Once he actually DID get side control, he did almost nothing with it, and was so gassed that Sylvia damn near outwrestled him. I mean, for a few fleeting seconds, I actually thought that Tim fucking Sylvia was going to win via triangle choke.

I sympathize with Monson, as there's no easy way to plan out how you're going to take down someone with an 11-inch height advantage, but c'mon--push the action. Clinch him to take away the jab, knee him against the cage to hurt his stamina, try a takedown that isn't the same one you've been unsuccessfully throwing for 4 rounds straight. You've had months to figure out what you're going to do, surely you can come up with more than one method of attack.

As for Sylvia, I very much look forward to his matchup with Vera, as he's possibly the only heavyweight in the UFC at the moment motivated enough to push Sylvia past the "circle the cage throwing loose jabs" gameplan he's been utilizing for years. Failing that, I hope Dana White manages to wrap up that contract with Aleksander Emelianenko, as I can't imagine he'd have much trouble defusing Sylvia's weaponry.

The rest of the card, on the other hand, was pretty damned good. My man-crush on Joe Stevenson is again justified by his skills, Vera scores himself a title shot, and GSP/Hughes had the ending an awful lot of fans have been waiting for. It was great to see two of my favorite fighters mix it up, and the result was about what I was expecting. Hughes has a great deal of talent, but he's been coasting on the MFS cocktail of takedown-pound-lay tactics for a long time, now; hopefully, getting his ass kicked that badly will make him get back into the gym and round out his game.

GSP, on the other hand, finally proved himself the fighter everyone's been expecting him to become: fast, strong, and enjoyable as all hell to watch. Big, huge things in his future, and each one quite deserved. I can't imagine he's going to have much trouble with Matt Serra, and I would assume Sanchez will be next--a more interesting style clash, but one that will likely end similarly. As I'm expecting the UFC to throw Hughes and Penn together one more time for their rubber match, and I would unfortunately bet on Penn to take it, I think it's safe to say we'll see GSP/Penn II for the belt sometime in the next year and a half. Exciting.

All aboard the hype train for 66, in any case. Sadly, I'm most looking forward to seeing Bisping making his re-debut--Griffin/Jardine does not a marquee match make, and if Ortiz actually believes his own promo hype about being able to beat Liddell on his feet, you can look forward to another highlight-reel knockout for the Iceman.

There is a ton of talent in the light-heavyweight division, so even though Sherk is a beast, he'll have to work hard to keep his title. If the rumour about BJ Penn dropping to light-heavyweight is true, Sherk will be in big trouble.

"I don't know what is more disquieting -- the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."

There is a ton of talent in the light-heavyweight division, so even though Sherk is a beast, he'll have to work hard to keep his title. If the rumour about BJ Penn dropping to light-heavyweight is true, Sherk will be in big trouble.

Agreed. While I don't enjoy Sherk's style, he is going to be tough to beat. Joe Stevenson (the golden boy who a lot of people think will get a shot soon) is a year or two away from being able to defeat the Sean Sherk of today. There are a lot of good challengers in the LW division.

I don't get this. Why pull Carwin from the existing fight with Cain (which I was psyched for)? Why not wait one week and see if Couture wins in dominating fashion, and get a monster buyrate out of Lesnar-Couture 2?